Movie Review: “Wonder Woman” (See it!)
I grew up reading Marvel comics, not DC, so most of what I know about the lore of Wonder Woman is what I absorbed from the 1970s Lynda Carter TV show plus vague memories of the Super Friends. I’m aware that the character has had many reboots and reinterpretations, but my perspective is that of many viewers who come to the movie with only a small amount of background knowledge. I think most of them, like me, will love it. (Spoilers, with a warning, appear about halfway through this review.) “Wonder Woman” is a very satisfying film, even if it isn’t perfect. I have some logical quibbles with some of its elements in the beginning, and it is not exactly subtle; however, the notes it hits ring true all the way through. By the end, tears of both sorrow and joy were trickling down my cheeks. There’s a lot of building up and following through, from the quiet, simple, opening narrative to the firm statement of purpose at the end. It doesn’t have the snappy patter of many Marvel movies, but the emotional payoffs are pretty great.
Book Review: The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms
In the darkened streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown, Missy Masters is struggling to take up the vigilante-hero mantle of her retired, estranged grandfather, Mr. Mystic. Missy shares his stubbornness, his intimate connections with Chinese culture, and his uncanny ability to cross into a realm of shadows and exert limited control over the creatures within. Just as she literally straddles worlds, Missy also dances a line of pretending to be an aged, but expert, male superhero while training to advance beyond her actual novice abilities. She aspires to the strength and moral right that her grandfather embodied while battling against memories of his emotional distance, his personal secrets, and the prejudices common of his generation. Typical of masked superheroes, she has two lives, the separate worlds of Missy Masters and of Mr. Mystic. And she has past experiences, a world away in China, that have led her to be the woman and vigilante of the present.
Geekomancer Under Glass – 2014 in Geekdom
Happy New Year! Mike Underwood again with some thoughts on what lies ahead for Geekdom in 2014. There’s far more than I could possibly cover here, but please find below a few of the bits of Geekdom I’m most excited for in the first part of 2014. Return of new TV Three new SF/F series have caught my interest this season, which is more than I might have expected. I’ve talked about them before, but I’ll go over each, in brief, with my hopes for the back half of the season.
My Superpower: Zack Drisko
My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Zack Drisko to talk about how Not Being Satisfied relates to Ava Snow Battles Death… My superpower is the ability to not be satisfied. If I do a good job at something, instead of being able to enjoy it, my superpower identifies every single flaw and says, “Try again, dick. Maybe you tricked other people into thinking that you have talent, but you didn’t fool me.” This power might seem uselessly damaging to my self-esteem, and it often makes me a pain in the ass to be around, but here’s the thing: it pushes me to be better.
#SkiffyandFanty Episode 99 — An Interview w/ Pavarti K. Tyler (a.k.a. Queen of Sandals)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow–Episode99–AnInterviewWPavartiK.Tyler/Sandf–Episode99–InterviewWPavartiKTyler.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSPavarti K. Tyler graces us with her presence in our appropriately-named 99th episode. We talk about her new book, Shadow on the Wall, Muslim culture and her attempts to explore its boundaries, and many other related and fascinating topics. The interview was as instructional as it was entertaining. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 99 — Download (MP3) Intro and Interview w/ Pavarti K. Tyler (0:00 – 42:54) Fighting Monkey Press (where you can find links to Pavarti’s various web spaces) The 99 Buy Pavarti’s book! It’s good. You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible. Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Guest Post: “Superhero Ethics” by Myke Cole
I grew up on comic books. By this, I don’t mean that I grew up standing on piles of them (although, now that I think about it, I probably did that a few times); I mean that I grew up reading them. I thrilled to Superman reversing the earth’s rotation in an effort to turn back time to stave off disaster. I loved it when Batman crashed through a window to save a sleeping couple from a would-be marauder. The X-Men kept us safe from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Avengers did that when Hydra and AIM came calling. The Justice League? Always on watch. From space. Seeing all. I was a kid. I never asked why. They did it because they were “good guys” (and by “guys,” I mean some of them weren’t). They were genetically driven to do what was right, which always happened to coincide with my desire to sleep safe and comfy in my bed at night. As I grew up, I began to understand that human interests are sometimes at odds with each other. Two different people can both want the same thing, a
